Gedling Borough Council have announced ambitious new plans to increase recycling rates in the area and to create a more sustainable way of disposing waste.
Consultation on a new waste and recycling policy that sets out the council’s ambition to increase recycling rates has been approved by Gedling Borough Council’s cabinet.
The proposals include ensuring all households have large 240 litre recycling bins as standard and access to additional recycling bins, free of charge, if there’s a proven need. The council will also offer additional glass recycling boxes to households who need them.
The council will also offer a large 240 litre residual waste bin as standard to all households consisting of one to five residents. Further residual waste capacity will be offered to households where there are six or more residents.
Gedling has seen rates of contamination in recycling bins increase and the new policy will look at ways it can reduce the issue.
Although Gedling Borough Council collects waste, it is Nottinghamshire County Council who has overall responsibility for recycling as the waste disposal authority. The policy will aim to strengthen working relationships with the two councils to look at ways to improve recycling rates, setting out some key principles around communication and advice to residents and, as a last resort, enforcement for continued contamination of bins.
Despite higher levels of contamination in recycling bins, when residents were asked in the recent residents’ survey about how satisfied they were with bin collections in Gedling, 82% of responders said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the service.
Leader of Gedling Borough Council, Councillor John Clarke MBE said "This is the first time we’ve have a policy in place that reinforces the work we are already doing to increase recycling rates and get more people reducing their carbon footprint by reducing their general waste.
"We need to work with Nottinghamshire County Council, who are responsible for waste disposal, to do more to make it easier for people to recycle in our borough. They are in a very long term contract with the recycling disposal company, Veolia, and more needs to be done to make it easier for our residents to recycle more items.
There is still confusion about what we can and cannot take and we need to address this by giving our residents the right information and reminding them of the importance of not contaminating their recycling bins.”
Deputy Leader Councillor Michael Payne said: "We are proud of our waste collection crews, who have managed to maintain all of our collection services throughout the last two years, with minimal disruption to residents. The fact 82% of residents are satisfied with how we run our service speaks volumes.
"We know residents want to dispose of their rubbish correctly and that the impact of covid means more people are at home for longer each day, which is one of the reasons we will offer large 240 litre bins for both general waste and recycling. It was deeply disappointed to be made aware that misleading leaflets about bin sizes being reduced were being put through residents’ doors by candidates and a particular political party during the recent Cavendish ward by election.”
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